Orange Box to be highest rated release ever?

Following its arrival on Valve's Steam network and ahead of its retail release in the UK next week, The Orange Box is on target to become possibly the highest rated games release of all time.

CVG reports that The Orange Box currently has an average review score of 98 on review aggregation site Metacritic – just ahead of fan favourite Halo 3 on 94 and 2K Games' cult hit Bioshock on 96. The only game to carry a higher average review score on the site is Nintendo's N64 hit The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time with 99.

The Orange Box includes critical smash Half-Life 2, expansion packs HL2: Episode One and HL2: Episode 2 and multiplayer games Portal and Team Fortress 2.